Video: Finding the first boxes in perspective

I realize that this is a lot of setup and you're probably anxious to get into actually doing the perspective drawing. So, here we go! We want to define a cube or box that encompasses the base of the castle first. It's important to get the big forms drawn before you start working on any details. First close your perspective group to get it out of the way. Create a new layer above all of your perspective guides and call it rough drawing. Next you need to choose a color that will show up over your concept sketch.

An accurate perspective drawing is an essential base for most matte paintings. Learn how to create linear perspective drawings of a castle in Adobe Photoshop with this course, and migrate the lessons to your own project. David Mattingly, a matte artist for many groundbreaking motion pictures, teaches you about the three types of perspective, and how to set up vanishing points, find and rough in the forms in your painting, add detail like crenellations, draw ellipses, and polish the final drawing.

Note: This installment of Digital Matte Painting Essentials builds on the concept sketch from the first course, but it's not necessary to have those files to proceed.

Finding the first boxes in perspective

I realize that this is a lot of setup andyou're probably anxious to get into actually doing the perspective drawing.So, here we go!We want to define a cube or box that encompasses the base of the castle first.It's important to get the big forms drawn before you start working on any details.First close your perspective group to get it out of the way.Create a new layer above all of your perspective guides andcall it rough drawing.Next you need to choose a color that will show up over your concept sketch.

Mine is very dark, so a black line won't work.Pick a color that's different from your guide color, so you won't confuse them.I'm going to use white.I like that rough brush with the little scatter on itfor drawing, since the line has a little character to it.Make the line 4 pixels wide, andset the opacity to 50 percent.Now draw a line that defines the front edge ofthe cube that contains the ground floor of the castle.You can constrain the brush to a vertical by holding down on the Shift key.

Then draw the back left edge of the same cube and then the right edge.Keep your hand on the Undo button for when you missthe edge so you can digitally erase the line and try again.With those three edges defined, you need to draw the top and bottom of the box.You'll want to consult your perspective guides and match them carefully.The green lines vanish to the right, so followyour right guides for the right side of the castle.The purple lines vanish to the left, so use them for the left side of the castle.

This structure is sitting into the hillside and not showing the bottom.But you should draw intoanything that blocks the cube and delineate the entire form.You probably won't get it exactly right the first time.So undo until you get your lines precisely following the guides.I'm going to open up the Perspective group and darken the lines a bit.This first box maybe the most important part of perspective drawing.If it's drawn incorrectly, the rest of the project will be wrong also.So double check your lines.

Now we need to define the boxes for the other layers of the castle.Draw the right edge of this middle floorthen the near facing edge and the left edge.Then, carefully noting the purple lines vanishing to the left.Draw the top of the left side of the boxand then the right side using the green lines as reference.There's one more box that makes up the basic structure at the top.This one is more complicated than the others butwe want to reduce it to the most basic box.

We'll get the more complicated stuff later.Go ahead and define that one also.As always using your vanishing point lines of convergence as reference as you work.And that's it.The start of the perspective drawing.The three basic boxes that make up the structure.Next we'll learn how to divide forms in perspective.

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Learn by watching, listening, and doing! Exercise files are the same files the author uses in the course, so you can download them and follow along. Exercise files are available with all Premium memberships.
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